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Report: Wal-Mart May Reverse DRM Policy

By: Justin Bourne

Posted: 10/10/2008

According to new reports, Wal-Mart's servers may stay online in light of a potential reversal of its digital rights management policy.

An email was sent out to consumers last month by Wal-Mart stating that it would no longer be assisting with digital rights management concerns surrounding protected files purchased from its website Walmart.com. This means users wouldn't be able to transfer music files to new devices, but they would still be accessible from the original device.

However, after harsh criticism, Wal-Mart now says it will maintain its support of the DRM-protected music.

An email was posted on the Engadget website stating that "we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time," adding that their customer service team "will continue to assist with DRM issues for protected windows media audio (WMA) files purchased from Walmart.com."

Yahoo! and Microsoft previously proclaimed similar plans, but reneged upon receiving severe condemnation, CNET.com reported.